CHAPTER FOUR #2
Licia got to her feet and stepped onto the ice, careful and focused. She crossed without a word and dropped to her knees near the far side.
“He’s here!” she called.
I didn’t ask how she knew. I just believed her.
I tore off my skates and ran across the lake, the ice groaning beneath me as my feet slapped against it.
Licia was already striking the ice with her skate, so I dropped beside her, grabbed mine, and joined in.
I raised the skate high and slammed it down.
Again. Raised it. Slammed it down. Again.
Finally, the ice cracked. We kept going, widening the hole with each strike until the water opened up before us, a pitch-black mouth, gaping like something from a nightmare.
”You sure he’s there?” I asked.
Licia nodded, her eyes glassy. ”Yes."
That was all I needed. I tore off my coat and jumped in. The cold hit me like a wall, stealing the air from my lungs in a single breath and wrapping around me like chains. My mind screamed at me to get out, but I didn’t listen. I couldn’t. I had to find him.
I dove deeper, hands out, eyes wide. My fingers scraped rocks and silt—and then fabric.
Will. His body was limp, and I kicked hard, using all my strength to drag him with me.
My limbs felt like stone, and my lungs cried as I swam back toward the opening.
The world above blurred into a shimmer of light as I forced us upward.
My head broke through and I gasped, choking on the air.
“Help me!” I screamed.
Licia grabbed his arms and I helped push him up with everything I had, before hauling myself out, crawling onto the ice the way my father had taught me.
Flat. Slow. Don’t stand. Don’t stop. But he never warned me about the currents.
Never said that the lake could pull you under, away from the crack, and trapped beneath it.
I crawled toward Will, grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “Will!” I shouted. “Come on!”
Nothing.
I pulled him into my arms, held him tight against me. Shut my eyes and pictured him laughing. Breathing. Alive. He had to wake up. He had to.
Then—
Something stirred.
It wasn’t the cold. It wasn’t the wind. It was inside me.
A spark.
A warmth where there should’ve been none, and it spread in my chest. Slow at first. Gentle. Like the soft light of dawn. Then hotter, forcing its way through my arms, into my hands.
My hands burned.
I looked down.
Light.
Golden. Alive. Moving like water under my skin. It shimmered across my fingers and pooled in my palms, glowing brighter with every beat of my heart. It felt like something ancient was being pulled through me, spilling into him. A thread of life, stitching him back together.
Will twitched, shuddered, and his chest heaved beneath my hands before he finally coughed. A ragged breath tore through his throat and his eyes flew open. Water clung to his lashes as his mouth opened, coughing and choking, but breathing.
He was breathing.
I sobbed, my whole body shaking as tears poured faster than I could stop them. Will was alive.
Then everything spun. The light faded from my hands and the cold rushed back in. I slumped to the side, dizzy and trembling, but Licia caught me before I hit the ice.
“I’ve got you,” she breathed.
I could barely hold my head up as my vision blurred at the edges.
“What... what was that?” she asked, her eyes wide.
I blinked, trying to form words, but all I could do was cry.
“I don’t know,” I said between sobs. “I don’t know.”
My head tipped again. Licia steadied me, holding me gently but firmly in her arms. Then we heard footsteps, fast, crunching through the snow. Licia’s eyes darted toward the sound, then back to me.
“Don’t tell them,” she whispered, her voice suddenly urgent. “Don’t ever tell anyone about that. You don’t know what they’ll do.”
I nodded weakly as the noise of the world closed in, my teeth chattering so violently I thought they might crack. Then came the arms around me, scratchy wool against my cheek and the scent of pine in the air.
“Come on now, girl. Stay awake,” the voice of a woman said. She took me into her arms. “You shouldn’t have been out here. The ice isn’t thick enough yet. Don’t you kids know what cold can do? Idiots, the lot of you.”
I couldn’t speak. My breaths came short and fast, and somewhere behind us, Will was being carried too, wrapped in blankets. Pale and still, but breathing.
The woman moved fast through the snow as she muttered to herself. I couldn’t keep up with the words. The woman put us by the hearth in a fishing cottage. I couldn’t focus on anything but Will’s chest rising and falling. As long as it moved, I didn’t care about anything else.
Then my brother arrived. I didn’t know how much time had passed or how quickly the news had reached him. Licia’s father had already come for her, so it was just me, the boys, and the kind woman. Einar’s jaw was tight, his eyes sharp.
“We’re leaving,” he murmured, already pulling off his coat to wrap around me.
“I can’t leave him,” I protested.
“I’ll stay,” Aran said quietly. “I won’t move until his parents come. I swear it.”
Will’s eyes fluttered open just enough to find me. “It’s okay,” he croaked. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“He needs to stay in the warm a bit longer, anyways,” the woman said from her seat by the hearth, heating soup for Will.
I looked between them—Aran, hunched over Will like a guard dog, and Einar, waiting at the door.
I didn’t move.
“Kera.” Einar’s voice was sharper that time, leaving no room to argue. Then the door shut behind me and the warmth was gone. The cold slammed into me as snow swirled thick in the air.
“Are they angry?” I asked.
“No," Einar replied. He sounded certain. It should have comforted me.
“But you are.”
“I’m not angry,” he said with a sigh. “I’m worried.”
I lowered my eyes. “I had it under control.”
“Then why did Aran say you almost drowned?”
I frowned. “Because he’s a tattle.”
Einar stopped walking.
“How many times have I told you to stay away from those boys, Kera? You never listen.”
“I’m sorry," I said. I’d cried enough to feel numb by then. I barely reacted to his harsh words. But he accepted the apology.
“You could have died. The both of you.”
“I know.”
“Why would you jump in?" he asked, his eyes fixed on mine.
“I’m a better swimmer than Licia.”
For a heartbeat, he just stared at me. Then he shook his head slowly, like he couldn’t decide if I was brave or out of my mind.
“Kera…” His voice softened. "You could have died.”
I kept my eyes on the ground.
“None of you should have jumped in,” he said.
“Someone had to,” I muttered.
He let out a slow breath. “Boys don’t learn,” he said. “But I hope you do.”
I looked up at him. ”Will’s going to be fine…right?”
“Yes,” he said. "And he’ll be back ice fishing by morning.”
“He wouldn’t be that dumb?”
Einar gave me a look. “He’s a boy. He’ll be that dumb.”
I frowned. ”How do you know?”
Einar paused, then smirked.
”I am a boy.”
It caught me off guard, and a laugh almost slipped out.
“I just want him to be okay,” I said.
Einar placed a hand on my shoulder.
“He will be. And so will you.”